LETTER VI. 87 



We had hardly cleared the first low benches of 

 beautiful golden grass, when we sighted four big- 

 horn, low down on the hills across the river, feed- 

 ing, indeed, just along the top of the little moraines 

 which formed the very foot of the hill-face. 



Tommy and I at once left S. and the boy to 

 signal to us any change in the bighorns' position, 

 and then scrambled down and forded the river 

 again, under cover of a small thicket of trees, 

 amongst which Tommy left his steeple-crowned 

 hat and most of his clothes, whilst I left all I 

 could spare. The climb up the moraine was very 

 good training for what was to come in the next 

 three weeks, and seemed to impress my guide 

 favourably as to my powers of silent progression ; 

 but, of course, when we had skirted innumerable 

 moraines, we found the sheep had gone, and on 

 signalling only discovered that our ' flag-waggers ' 

 had gone placidly to sleep. The spot on which 

 we left them was both mossy and sunny. 



For the rest of the day we rode or led our 

 animals from one ' bench ' to another, scrambling 

 up stony little ravines and long slopes of slippery 

 grass, and anon diving into thinly-timbered hol- 

 lows or basins, in which everything shelter, the 

 finest of grass, and water combined to make a 

 very paradise for game. As yet there were not 

 many tracks in these hollows and on the beautiful 



